Cuba: Former President Raúl Castro meets with the leadership of the Communist Party | They denounce the arrest of more than a hundred people and the interruption of access to social networks

The former Cuban president, Raúl Castro attended a meeting of the leadership of the Communist Party (CPC), where they addressed the protests last Sunday. As fake news about the Cuban government goes viral on social media, a UK web monitoring organization has ensured that the Island authorities cut off access to major social media platforms and a human rights NGO denounced more than 150 arrests of protesters.

At the PCC meeting chaired by the first formation secretary and president Miguel Diaz Canel, “the provocations orchestrated by counter-revolutionary elements, organized and financed from the United States for destabilizing purposes ”, indicates a statement released by the Cuban news agency. For the time being, Cuban state media have not released photographs showing the meeting in which Castro attended. June turned 90.

the Internet

Following Sunday’s protests, some organizations are also reporting difficulties accessing the Internet. According to NetBlocks, a London-based NGO, they have detected since Monday interruptions in the messaging services of the social networks Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as on some servers Telegram. The organization said some Cubans were able to bypass the restrictions through the use of virtual private networks or VPNs.

“NetBlocks recommends that governments comply with international standards and Internet governance frameworks and ensure reliable Internet connectivity even in times of political turmoil, ”a statement said.

The deputy Maria Elvira Salazar, a representative from a district in South Florida where a large Cuban-American community resides, said in a tweet that “the regime is shutting down the Internet on the island” and “doesn’t want the world to see what is going on “.

The first images of Sunday’s protests were broadcast via mobile internet. Last week for example, the label has multiplied on the networks #SOSCuba by calling for humanitarian aid in Cuba to deal with an economic and health crisis resulting from the pandemic. Renowned politicians and artists around the world have used the label to demonstrate in support of the protests. However, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez accused the United States of using the label to campaign against Cuba. “I have irrefutable proof that most of the users who took part in this campaign were in the United States and that automated systems were used to make the content viral, without being penalized by the social network Twitter”, a- he declared.

Pictures out of context

In addition to the allegations, photographs of protests that do not match Cuba have also gone viral. Recently, it was discovered that several images posted on social media that were allegedly taken during this weekend’s protests were in fact taken out of context and in some cases were not even from Cuba. . For example, One of the more viral images doesn’t show a massive anti-government protest on Havana’s Malecón, but rather it is a 2011 image that shows thousands of Egyptians marching against then-dictator Hosni Mubarak.“Historic day for Cuba. It is the Malecón of Havana. Nothing can stop the coming freedom for this beautiful people who have suffered for years,” read one of the publications.

Another of the viral images on the island shows former Cuban President Raúl Castro getting off a plane. According to tweets that shared the image, Castro was fleeing the island after the July 11 protests. “He arrived in Caracas around 11:37 pm today, Sunday July 11, 2021 (sic)”, indicates a tweet which has been shared more than 1,600 times and more than 2,000 likes on this platform. However, the image is from 2015 and shows the former president arriving in Costa Rica to attend a multilateral summit.

Arrests

Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) José Miguel Vivanco on Tuesday released a list of missing persons published by Cubalex, a US-based NGO, “known to provide free legal advice and assistance,” according to information published on his website. According to this list, some 171 people have been reported missing, 17 of whom have already been released or their fate is known.

“The first lists of detainees in the protests in Cuba exceed 150”Vivanco wrote on his Twitter account, which also warned that “the fate of many of them is unknown”.

Among those detained during the day of the protests are well-known opponents of the Cuban government, such as Guillermo Farinas, the political express Daniel Ferrer and the artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, as reported by the San Isidro Movement (MSI), a group of intellectuals and artists for free speech, which also published a list of detainees. One of them, the playwright, Yunior Garcia, reported via Facebook that he had been arrested.

García recounted that when he learned of the protests, he went on Sunday with other colleagues to the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) to request 15 minutes in front of the cameras. But “a horde of radical conservatives and various rapid intervention groups denied us” this opportunity and “we were beaten, forcibly dragged and thrown onto a cargo truck like sacks of rubble,” he said. . In addition, he indicated that they had been released Monday afternoon “under a provisional measure” and “of an investigation procedure”.

Among those arrested on Monday are also Camila acosta, Cuban journalist for the international section of the Madrid daily ABC, according to the head of the section, Alexis Rodriguez. Spain’s foreign ministry on Tuesday called on Cuban authorities to respect the right to protest while demanding the immediate release of Acosta.